Director's Cut: Sky Ferreira's "I Blame Myself"

At some point, music videos became twisted lightning rods for discussion about race relations in America. So when Sky Ferreira released her spellbinding new clip for “I Blame Myself”—in which she’s flanked by a crew of tattooed black men in Compton—it almost felt like she was making a sly joke about the imagery that’s been so doggedly dissected by online pop pundits in the last year or two. Maybe she was giving a wink to her friend Miley Cyrus, who drew a flood of criticism last year for inviting black women to twerk alongside her in the video for “We Can’t Stop”. Maybe she was trying to invert gender norms by placing herself at the front of a pack of guys who initially come off like gangsters but turn out to be choreography nerds.

No matter what Ferreira’s intentions were, the video was an alley-oop for anyone eager to fuel internet fire. Like clockwork, reactions began bubbling, and Ferreira spoke out in defense: “Nothing upsets me more than being called racist because that is the most hateful thing anyone can be,” she wrote. “I never have and never will look at any human being as a prop. That’s disgusting.”

But the clip is not all that complicated, insists Grant Singer, the video’s director and long-time Ferreira collaborator. “I actually haven’t seen the Miley Cyrus video,” he explains to me over the phone. “And I don’t think this video is political.” Instead, “I Blame Myself” is their attempt to make light of another one of Ferreira’s mini-maelstroms—her 2013 arrest with boyfriend and DIIV singer Zachary Cole Smith. The video finds Ferreira in handcuffs for an unnamed crime, only to break out into an impassioned dance in the interrogation room. Singer and Ferreira wanted to put the controversy to rest by treating it playfully—but they hadn’t anticipated awakening a new one.

Pitchfork: Have you and Sky talked about the reactions to the video?

Grant Singer: We’ve been texting throughout the day. I don’t think it’s a majority of people, but there are some people who misinterpreted the video. My big issue is that you can’t really make anything mildly provocative or satirical these days without people lashing out at you. I think people are sort of bored on the internet and waiting around to be offended. I think that people look to find something to find wrong or racist.

It’s sort of a lose-lose battle in terms of this video. If we get defensive and try to defend every creative decision that we’ve made, people will say, “Oh, they’re racist because they’re getting defensive.” But then if you don’t say anything… people will criticize you no matter what. I’m glad that Sky spoke up because she was really hurt by the comments calling her racist. Obviously she’s not. And I don’t think that video is whatsoever. All the creative decisions were simply creative decisions. I don’t know what we could have done differently other than cast all white dancers, but to me that’s, like, segregation. And I don’t think it’s appropriate for a white artist to only have white people in their videos.

Pitchfork: I think people reacted to the image of one white woman surrounded by a group of black men, though.

GS: But to me, the video is also fantasy. It’s fun and it’s playful and doesn’t take itself too seriously. At the end of the video she breaks free from her chains and gives the detective a lap dance. It gets more playful as the video goes on. But you create something and then it elicits a response and you just have to accept whatever that response might be.

Pitchfork: How did you develop the concept?

GS: I had an idea that we would set the video in that world, and there would be a dance number in the second verse. And as the video progressed, we would do a series of reveals. We knew that the video would reference her real life—the arrest—and sort of put that story to bed by doing it in a playful, fun, but emotional way. It’s so ridiculous that after she was arrested a few months ago there was this aura about her, where she was some drug criminal. We thought that it would be a good opportunity, because the song is super personal, to depict her arrest in an exaggerated environment. By doing that, she could move on with the next chapter of her life.

The video happened to be in Compton, but it was an accident. I was out of gas. We were driving and we stopped for gas. And we looked across the street and it was this insane empty lot that had beautiful blue and white tile that really stuck out to me. But the treatment didn’t say: “An afternoon in Compton, California.”

Pitchfork: How did you cast the guys in the video?

GS: They were all professional dancers. We did a really extensive audition that was primarily a dance audition. But since there was a prologue, I also wanted to talk to them and get their vibe. The beginning of the video is supposed to evoke “The Wire” or real-life documentary street stuff. Really gritty and hand-held. The song starts and we first see the back of this person, and we’re not sure if it’s a girl or a guy, and he’s sort of like a boss. He’s intimidating. And we tilt down and reveal these studded leggings and it’s Sky. Sky as a boss in this world is a juxtaposition to the poppiness of the music, but also to her real life persona.

Casting the guys, they had to fit that vibe. They had to have a certain look as well, to make that believable. The guys had the best time. They've been texting me that they want to do more videos. They could not have been more excited. They're the most excited. They love it.

Pitchfork: Did you think about casting Cole [from DIIV, Sky’s boyfriend] in the video?

GS: We didn’t. I don’t know if he would have fit in that world necessarily.

Pitchfork: How was Sky’s look developed?

CB: The company that helped us make the video, SSENSE, gave us access to all these clothes. I originally wrote the opening scene as, we follow this person cloaked in a New York Giants hoodie—I’m a big Giants fan—and then we reveal that she has these studded leggings. But we couldn’t do it because we needed to use the designer clothes that the company was offering to us.

Pitchfork: Did you have in mind the videos that have been criticized for placing black women around a white woman? Miley Cyrus, Lily Allen, etc.

GS: I actually haven't seen the Miley Cyrus video. I knew I wanted guys. I never even thought about it—I just wanted Sky in a world of guys. It also plays on gender politics, but I don't think this video is political. This is a music video. We just wanted to have fun with it while also making something that's personal for her. I don't want to over intellectualize it, is what I'm saying. The racial discussion was so not on anybody's mind. Sky has a black manager, her family's in the video. Her dad is the guy with the tattoo of Sky on the back of his neck. Her brother who's half black is in the video. We wanted to make it personal by casting a lot of her family and friends. This was really just,"it’ll be fun to do this video and create an exaggerated environment that references your arrest."

I remember people criticizing Miley a few months ago, but I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t see the video or the performance or whatever she did. Now, experiencing this, I have so much empathy for what she went through. You can’t really do anything daring without people lashing out at you and creating meaning when there is none.